Chances are, you do not live in a castle.

You don’t have a moat or a drawbridge or even a guard in a high furry hat. The only throne you have is, well, never mind. The point is, you’re probably not royalty but you can surely read about those who are…

About that castle: you might want one of your very own after you read “The Palace: From the Tudors to the Windsors, 500 Years of British History at Hampton Court” by Gareth Russell (Atria Books, $29.99). 
Forget Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace. Hampton Court Palace is where Russell says all the intriguing, impactful things happened throughout British history, including Shakespeare’s plays, a coronation ball, and more. Fans of The Crown and readers of royal history or novels of Great Britain will devour this book.

So you like to think that British monarchs had perpetually stiff upper lips? Not so, as you’ll see in “Unruly: The Ridiculous History of England’s Kings and Queens” by David Mitchell (Crown, $32.50). In fact, the monarchy was kind of “a mess.”

Taking readers back a few hundred years, Mitchell begins with a king he says didn’t really exist and why he’s still in our history books. We learn about wanna-be’s, woulda-beens, and wish-they-weren’t monarchs, “raiding and killing and stealing” and everything in between, up to Queen Elizabeth I, who had her own issues, honestly. For Royal Watchers and scoffers like, this is a fun book to have.

Readers who want a different point of view of the Royal Family will love to have “Gilded Youth: A History of Growing Up in the Royal Family” by Tom Quinn (Pegasus, $28.95) in their hands. It’s a book that takes a long, deep look into the childhoods and young adulthoods of the royal family – their favorite things to do, pranks they pulled, typical-kid behavior, likes and dislikes, and what the future might hold for the grandchildren of King Charles. This book is a charmer, so be ready to smile.

And finally, if scandal and controversy are what you’re looking for when reading about the Royals, then look for “Endgame: Inside the Royal Family and the Monarchy’s Fight for Survival” by Omid Scobie (Dey Street, $32.00). This argument-starting book includes some very thought-provoking hypotheses about the future of the Family, which goes hand-in-hand with the increasingly-posed question about how relevant they are in today’s world. At issue are, mainly, the sons of the King and the inner turmoil concerning the Sussexes, but also the need for the monarchy to step into the twenty-first century in more ways than one. This book has been a hot-button one in the news lately, and for good reason. If you’re a Royal-watcher, read it and see what you think.

And if you think these four books just aren’t enough, then you’re in luck: your favorite librarian or bookseller has all kinds of books on the Monarchy, past and present, and the history of Great Britain. Grab these, or other royal books and bring them home to your castle.

by Winter Books on the Royal Family by various authors
c.2023, various publishers
$28.95 – $32.50
various page counts